USING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AS A STRATEGIC WEAPON: LESSONS FROM THE RED BARON

Organizations investing in information technology (IT) over the past decades have categorically seen the uses of IT change. At one point, IT was considered a key strategic tool to gain competitive advantage; however, today, acquiring basic IT functions is a necessity in order not to be at a competitive disadvantage. It takes advanced IT systems, coupled with good strategy to develop an IT competitive advantage. With good strategy and advanced IT systems, some organizations can use IT as a weapon to secure market share and/or eliminate the competition. We suggest in this article that there are strategic points of which organizations should be aware during the implementation and use of information technology. These lessons come from the strategic lesson plans of the ace aviation fighter pilot, the Red Baron.IT Strategy, Competitive advantage, Change, Aviation, Technology.

Is It the Company's or Mine? Perceived Organizational Justice Practices and the Ownership of Job Knowledge

This study examined the factors that determine a workers willingness to share private knowledge gained on the job. The recent vogue in knowledge management studies typically assumes that workers naturally are willing to share what they have learned, but economic theory suggests that there should be powerful disincentives to share. We explored justice practices, individual personality, the psychological contract, organizational commitment and their relationships to worker ownership. Results indicated that procedural and distributive justice had opposite effects on knowledge ownership, while psychological contract breach and continuance commitment had positive, direct effects on knowledge ownership

Improving Diabetes Care in Practice: Findings from the TRANSLATE trial

OBJECTIVE—The purpose of this study was to determine whether implementation of a multicomponent organizational intervention can produce significant change in diabetes care and outcomes in community primary care practices

Using tablet technology and recording software to enhance pedagogy

and four year degree-granting institutions already offer distance education courses and an additional 12% plan to start offering such courses in the following three years (Waits and Lewis 2003). This drive for increased e-learning enrollment has evolved with the changing student culture of higher educational institutions. According to Jones and Madden (2002), typical college students have grown up with computers, and the Internet has become an essential ingredient to their everyday lives. In response to such changes, institutions of higher education have incorporated new teaching styles and altered their business strategies of delivering courses to meet the demands of 21st-century learners (Beaudoin 2003). In one respect, increasing e-learning enrollment encourages educators to design constructivist-based courses that support technologically savvy students. The framework of these newly designed courses promotes student learning through active engagement, resulting in knowledge produced from experience as opposed to the passive receiving of knowledge typical of the traditionally styled lecture (McGriff 2001). Recent research shows that technology properly deployed in the classroom can enhance the learning process by making it more interactive and enjoyable while also allowing for curriculum customization to match learners ' developmental needs as well as personal interests (Valdez et al. 2004). However, teachers often face the problem of finding instructional technologies suited to 21st-century learners that do not require a hig

Goal Orientation and Goal Setting: Predicting Performance by Integrating Four-Factor Goal Orientation Theory with Goal Setting Processes

This study integrated four-factor goal orientation theory with goal setting theory, two related but separate research streams. 335 undergraduate business students participated by indicating their goal orientations, self-efficacy, and self-set goal for the semester. At the end of the semester, their final class grade was recorded. Results from the LISREL mediational model indicated that after controlling for ability, the four goal orientation variables differentially influenced self-efficacy, self